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 In reality, we ended up with “a thing” but what we made were countless decisions, a small temper tantrum, and millions of minute motions with our fingers, arms, hands and…. occasionally teeth… right guys?

How many times have you begun a pattern only to find that it is unclear or incorrect? How many times have you misjudged your gauge? How many times have you said resolutely “I can make that!” and found that it became mostly a game of frogging, ripping out your work and casting on again. It is these experiences of on-the-fly problem solving that allow us to build creative skills for dealing with everyday life. I like to call it “Making it Work”. I thought I had coined this phrase, but apparently, I did not. Perhaps we can call it a parallel evolution! (A wake-up to pop culture is now on my to-do list.)

When a non-fiber artist encounters our work, it is easy for them to see it and think, “you made a thing!” In reality, we ended up with “a thing” but what we made were countless decisions, a small temper tantrum, and millions of minute motions with our fingers, arms, hands and…. occasionally teeth… right guys? A project never goes as planned, and we are constantly creating work-arounds. These are the things we see when we look at a finished project. We don’t only see that this object is something we’ve made, we see all of the instances where we had to make it work.

After years of making it work, we instinctively shift into that mode. We no longer see ‘the problem’; instead, our brain begins churning with all of the possible remedies. Continued practice of this mentality can help shift our everyday life stresses too.

After some time, you no longer look at you work and say “hmm, that is a problem.” After years of making it work, we instinctively shift into that mode. We no longer see ‘the problem’; instead, our brain begins churning with all of the possible remedies. Continued practice of this mentality can help shift our everyday life stresses too. For me, this is not a solution to stress, nor is it a solution to my problems themselves, but this practice does not allow me to linger for very long in the 'problem mentality', but to rather become aware of it, and shift gears into the problem-solving mindset much quicker.

The more we recognize the value in this and share it with others, the more we can spread the many happy side-effects of fiber arts and yarn-crafting!